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Suffrage in Australia is the voting rights in the Commonwealth of Australia, its six component states (before 1901 called colonies) and territories, and local governments. The colonies of Australia began to grant universal male suffrage from 1856, with women's suffrage on equal terms following between the 1890s and 1900s.
Western Australia extends voting to Indigenous people. 1966 On 1 February 1966, Queensland extended voting rights to all Indigenous Australians, the last Australian jurisdiction to do so. [1] 1984 The Commonwealth Electoral Act 1983 came into effect, making it compulsory for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to enrol to vote. [9]
In Australia, voter registration is called enrolment, which is a prerequisite for voting at federal elections, by-elections and referendums. Enrolment is compulsory for Australian citizens over 18 years of age who have lived at their current address for at least one month. [2]
Western Australia granted women the right to vote from 1899, although with racial restrictions. In 1902, the newly established Australian Parliament passed the Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902, which gave women equal voting rights to men and the right to stand for federal parliament (although excluding almost all non-white people of both sexes). [2]
The voting age, and consequential requirement to register, was reduced to 18 in 1974. In 1984, the criteria for the right to vote, and requirement to register, became Australian citizenship. Residents in Australia who had been enrolled as British subjects on 25 January 1984 could continue to be enrolled, without taking Australian citizenship.
The Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902 (Cth) was an Act of the Parliament of Australia which set out who was entitled to vote in Australian federal elections.The Act established, in time for the 1903 Australian federal election, suffrage for federal elections for those who were British subjects over 21 years of age who had lived in Australia for six months.
(Preferential voting had been pioneered by Queensland in 1892.) [4] The voting system was changed by the anti-Labor Hughes after the 1918 Swan by-election, which saw the Labor candidate win with 34% of the vote due to a split in the anti-Labor vote between the Nationalist and Country Party candidates, with 29.6% and 31.4% respectively.
Voting in federal, state and territory elections is compulsory for all persons on the electoral roll. [21] Voting can take place by a person attending in person at any polling place in their State on the election day or in early voting locations, or by applying for and mailing in a postal vote. Votes may apply for postal votes in perpetuity.